With the economy in such a state these days, there is what the Times of London calls the flight to safety so where are Britons putting their cash? They are putting it in premium bonds. What are those, you say? Well, the National Lottery only started in the 1990's in the UK. So, how did Britons do one of the things they love to do, namely gamble? Well, you can gamble on the ponies (my mother did when she lived here) but you can also buy Premium Bonds. These bonds do not give a yield but they give you the chance in a monthly lottery based on your bond number. You can win between £50 and £1,000,000. Now, the current odds of winning is 1:22,000 so basically you get something like, according to the Times, 3.8 percent.

I find this one of the most bizarre ways of running a lottery. However, it has proved so popular that, according to the wikipedia article above, one-third of people in the UK own some (you have to have 100 after that you can buy them ten at a time). I was talking to my flatmate about it and he was telling me that Premium Bonds are given as gifts like at births and stuff. In any case, still very strange.

So, while I was looking into Premium Bonds to find out more about them, I discovered that the UK government actually runs a bank. Now, in the States you can buy Savings Bonds from the US Treasury at Treasury Direct but in the UK you can get a bunch of different banking options at National Savings and Investments. I had talked about the Savings Bonds scheme to a bunch of people here but no one knew what I was talking about. One of the pit falls of living here is that all the financial language is similar but completely different at the same time. So, now that my bank is one of the "walking dead", I am seriously considering moving some of my money to the National Savings and Investments (the good thing about it is that it is 100% backed by the government).

One last note before I let you go. If you want to read some about the credit crunch in the UK from someone over here, you can read UK Bubble Blog but I should warn you that sometimes it seems like the author is hyperventilating a bit (but like I can talk, given my earlier rantings about going to gold).

Did you know that my home state of Washington has a giant salamander that, when threatened, barks like a dog? No, neither did I. For other strange creatures of the Pacific Northwest, see the Geoduck.

They passed the $700 billion bill to nowhere. I wonder if we will see hyperinflation or deflation. My flatmate keeps saying "life will go on" but I just wonder how painful that life is going to be. I have a mass of student loan debt that needs to be paid off so this is rather important.

Update: and after they passed the bill to nowhere, the Dow tanks by 156.51 points. Way to go Congress!!!

Let me tell you something about economics: just because it can be counted does not mean that it is mathematics.

I guess Peggy cannot go to the pub in the Scottish Borders anymore. Or, as Fark puts it, "It's not news; it's the BBC!"

Well, there has been some kind of screw up with the paperwork for my PhD. A friend of mine who did his viva after mine got his corrections letter from the post-graduate committee on Friday. I decided to wait to see if mine was just lost in the post. After the post arrived without it this morning, I went over to the post-grad office to see what was up. Of course, the person who I needed to see was not there so I left my email address for her to get back to me. She did, which I was surprised at, and I got some bad news. It seems that there was some question with my paperwork for my examination which they had to get clarification about. They just received the clarification today so I am scheduled for the next meeting on October 7. This probably means that I will not be graduating in December. I do not know that for certain yet but I will find out tomorrow afternoon. Given the complete meltdown that begun with my viva, I am not confident that I will even get my PhD at this point. I sent an email to my supervisor with the response from the post-grad office and I will see what he says. I will let everyone know if something goes horribly wrong (given the way things have been going for me lately, that is a distinct possibility).

Well, I finally wrote to my Senators about my displeasure over the finanical meltdown. Other than just whining I also gave five specific things that need to be done in the States for the future:

• Ban all derivatives.
• Ban Credit Default Swaps and Collateralized Debt Obligation.
• Create a "Financial Security Authority" which will approve any and all new "innovative" financial products with an eye towards the systemic risk of the new product.
• Ban leverage for any bank over 10 to 1. The new "Financial Security Authority" will have to approve any bank for leverage over 5 to 1.
• A return to the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933.

I think that a bunch of people will need to go to jail also as a warning to Wall St. about the consequences of failure.

Ah, yes, living in a nation of just over five million (a million less than the state that I come from) means that sometimes the newspapers need to dig for stories and when they do not have any, they write about Missy, the kamikaze kitten.